This City

One afternoon, I brought a chair closer to the balcony’s edge and turned it around. I sat in it and hung my arms over the railings. I’m so high up, so the view of the city was… amazing!

This city… I’ve only been in this city for about a week dodging sightseeing, but… from what I have seen, this city is awesome! From a view like this, it’s pretty hard not to reflect on your surroundings. Tronito, huh? This is probably the most lively city I’ve been to!

Where do I start? One thing that I enjoy is the structures of this large city. I like how clashing building styles can look good together. What I mean is that there could be an old-looking castle-like structure that looks completely natural next to a block of modern high-rise buildings. I also like the architecture of most of the buildings. They can look sleek with their cool shapes and colour combinations, but they can also be completely abnormal while still looking attractive. For example, there’s this big brown building that looks like it’s from the 19th century. That’s cool on its own, but it looks like a giant crystal is growing out of it; attached is a window-filled building made of giant pyramids that are probably made of white steel. I haven’t been inside, but I think it’s a museum.

Another thing I enjoy very much is how artistic this city is. On many streets, buildings, billboards, or even subway tunnels, you can find awesome art pieces of either celebrities, cartoon characters, or thought-provoking messages — I’m not sure whether they’re pieces of street art or vandalism, which is illegal. One of the most impressive pieces I’ve seen is a mural found on an entire side of a building. It’s a mural of someone’s face with sunglasses, but in the sunglasses is a picture of the city viewed from the side. The face is very detailed, but it is also painted using a barrage of bright blues, oranges, yellows, reds, and whites to create a colourful piece. Another thing I find exciting about this mural is its location. It’s located on a rather tall parking garage! The amount of time, money, and precision to paint this lovely painting must’ve been mind-boggling.

Not only paintings and drawings, but I’ve also seen crazy sculptures around this city. Some are really pretty, but some can be creepy. One statue I’ve seen seems to be of tree roots in front of a building. The roots have these things that look like hands forming wings all over the roots, making it look like it’s sparkling. The entire sculpture is also made of the same silver metallic-like material. As for creepy, I’ve seen a sculpture of a yellow head. What more, the head’s body were legs; was it a spider-like man, or a man-like spider? Regardless, all of these sculptures had one thing in common — appealing or cool looking.

I liked how the amount of nature and man-made structures were balanced. When there was a residential area, a natural trail or a spot next to a stream would be nearby. That was true for the outskirts of the city, but it was the same for the highly developed areas with large buildings, just to a lesser extent. Downtown had a lot of man-made structures, but there would be grassy park areas every so often. This city was also next to a lake! Along the shore of the lake was a bike trail with public pools, parks, exercise areas, or tennis courts. People would go there to unwind and hang out with friends or family — I’ve even stayed there once.

I think I heard somewhere that this city was one of the largest in the country, and if that’s true, of course, there would be a lot of tourist attractions. The very artsy nature of this city appealed to tourists, but that wasn’t all. There were huge malls and interesting museums like the one I described before, but there was one area I found to be very touristy. One thing in that area was a train museum. I haven’t been inside, but outside were models of different trains, ranging from old steam engines to modern diesel engines. Another thing was a high-end aquarium; I haven’t been inside, but I bet it’s gorgeous and fun. There’s also a large sports stadium which is where a sport, I think baseball and ice hockey, is played. There was also another sports stadium nearby and it had a massive TV screen on it; I think basketball is played in that one.

But the most notable tourist attraction, not only for that area but probably for the entire city, was the Cente Tower; I could clearly see the top of it from Mr Morales’ balcony. It was really tall — maybe one of the tallest buildings in the world. Cente Tower kinda had the appearance of a needle, in which it got more narrow the higher it was. Near the top, around three-quarters high, was a round room which was presumably where people went. It had to be — I mean, I could see that there was an elevator coming from the ground leading to it. I don’t know what sort of activities other than sightseeing is done in a place so high.

But I think the most impressive feature of this city — and this will totally sound pretentious — was the racial diversity. This city belonged to no race, but rather its inhabitants. There were many kinds of people of different ethnicities and backgrounds — white, black, Latin, Asian… There were definitely more of one race than another, but this city was still accepting of them. Accepting… People wouldn’t be scared to celebrate their heritage, and most people accepted that. This city was truly multicultural — accepting…

I sank my head into the railing of the balcony as I watched the skyline of the city and the many people walking on the ground far below me. I had a lot to say about this city, huh? I guess I fell in love with it just from an initial impression.

Hah…

As I sat there, I felt something — a single tear developed in my eye and rolled down my cheek.

I don’t want to leave… I really don’t want to leave...